Maybe
by Darra Greymist
Summary: A collection of drabbles/oneshots of what is, what was, what might have been, and perhaps of what may be. AU! SPOILERS!
1. Letter of the Law

Okay, so this is a random drabbles and oneshots collection. If any of them turn out to be anything other that AU, I will be so utterly shocked that I probably could power all of the Atlantic Coast. This first one is about Naruto and Sasuke, and how their final meeting might happen. Yes, I know that _**SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING**_ Sasuke kills Orochimaru and then goes off after Itachi, but I did in fact say that this is AU.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING. NOTHING. Why do you want to sue me for nothing?

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**Maybe**

_Letter of the Law_

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When Naruto finally caught up with Sasuke, Orochimaru and Itachi were already dead. The brutal three-way fight had shattered the landscape around the three, adding multiple obstacles in his way, but Naruto was no longer the naïve young genin who took hours to climb a tree, and it took only a few moments for him to land on the rocky flat space where Sasuke lay. The dark missing-nin looked up at the figure of his once-best friend uncomprehendingly. Naruto had changed in the years since Team Seven's beginnings, and changed still more in the years since its end. Now dressed in the black outfit of a hunter-nin, the only thing that tied the man in front of Sasuke to his teammate was the bright orange of his blank mask. Naruto took the five steps over to Sasuke, crouched next to the prone body, and removed his mask, hooking it on his belt.

"Dobe…" The voice was cracked and hoarse, and the effort of talking made him cough up more of the blood that stained the ground. "You finally going to bring me back to Konoha, hmm?" A short, breathless laugh. "have fun keeping me alive that long."

"Why would I bother with that, Sasuke-traitor? I promised Sakura I'd bring you back, not that I'd bring you back alive." Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, but the world just got dimmer, darkness clouding his vision. "After all, all Konoha needs are your eyes."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto caught up with his best friend in slightly more than enough time to save his life, and just enough time to watch him die.


	2. Your Aim Sucks

Argh, darn formatting isn't working. Well this one is about how Sasuke and Naruto are, in the end, ALWAYS going to be immature idiots.

Disclaimer: I disclaim. Just on general principles. In fact it is against my religious tenets to claim. SO DON'T SUE ME.

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**Maybe**

_Your Aim Sucks_

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Funny, how things turn out sometimes. Team Seven, plus Sai, together again. When one thinks of a climactic battle, they usually think in terms of large, sweeping scenery, a huge

battlefield with hundreds of bodies strewn about, and a one-on-one clash of titans. Very few people think of a seedy hotel in the middle of nowhere.

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Sasuke finally caught up to his brother just as Kakashi, Sakura, and Sai were about to split up to take on Kisame and Pein. At his arrival, instead of accusations and recriminations,

they simply nodded and shifted entirely to Kisame. Naruto would take on Pein, and the one thing they all knew they could rely on was that Sasuke would fight Itachi. Then, the two

boys had what was labeled by most of the rest of Konoha as a "Team Seven Moment."

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"I'm here for Itachi. Get in my way and I'll kill you."

"Like hell you will, bastard! You couldn't kill me before, and you can't do it now!"

"What! Yes I can! I'm-"

"Yeah, yeah, an avenger, an Uchiha, blah blah whatever. You still can't kill me!"

"And how exactly do you figure on that, you loser!"

"Same reason you couldn't at the Valley of the End! Your aim SUCKS!"


	3. Trust Your Mirror

Hokay, so. Here's dis next chapter... Which me owns only the idea of. No characters, no nothing. S'about Sai and Naruto.**  
**

Enjoy!

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**Maybe**

_Trust Your Mirror_

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Sai is the person Naruto trusts, more than anyone else. No one knows this, not even Sai, but it is true. No one would understand if they knew, and Naruto knows that he can't explain well enough to make them, so he's never told anyone. He probably never will. In the end, though, it's quite simple.

He is Sai and Sai is him, each a shattered mirror image of the other. Sai is a weapon, inhuman and almost emotionless. Naruto, no matter what the villagers think, is human. Naruto was allowed to keep living so he could be made into a weapon. Sai was made to be the razor-sharp chisel that breaks that weapon when it has outlived its usefulness and gotten out of control. Sai was made to be both the same and the opposite of Naruto, a true mirror image, made to be his destruction but come to be his lifeline. No one can exist without trust, and their lives have been so intertwined from the very beginning that even though the two boys didn't meet until they were almost fifteen, they know each other better than anyone else ever could. What you know, you trust.

Sai trusts Naruto to teach him how to be human, what the feelings he gets mean, from flutters to heat to cold, cold rage. Naruto trusts Sai to be Sai, to never betray him in ways he can't predict, and to kill him if it ever becomes necessary. He knows that Sai can do it.

Sai will never kill Naruto. He can't. After all, he was made to destroy a weapon, and there's no weapon to destroy. Naruto is not, and could never have been, and will never be a weapon. He may be human, he may not, Sai isn't sure enough about what humanity is to figure that out, but he is no weapon.

When Sai realizes this, he sits in his room, and works very hard to keep from going up to Danzou, ripping of the man's other arm, and beating him to death with it, just to show him what a _real_ weapon looks like. Then, he goes to Tsunade, and lays down each and every one of Danzou's plans that he knows about, some he shouldn't know about, and every single suspicion or even little twinge of worry about, systematically and thoroughly tearing apart Danzou's entire operation. When he gets home, Sai sits down and draws two boys, one dark and pale and blank-faced, one light and bright and smiling hugely, arms around each other in a way that shows clearly their utter trust in and devotion to each other, their willing readiness to defend one another to the death. It shows their brotherhood. It shows the one's humanity and the other's bare beginnings of it, and it shows, more than any words could, their sameness and difference. No one will ever take his brother away from him again.

* * *

He calls it "Mirror."


	4. Poems

Okay, so here's a new one. It's... uh... weird. And completely AU from the timeskip. Sasuke is in Oto, but... well, just read it. And there are like two spoilers. Only one if you already know that Sasuke's an idiot and have gotten up to the whole "Valley of the End" bit. Oh, the first two line of the first poem are from a disclaimer by RandomlyYours. I liked it, so I finished it. As in, even part of the first poem isn't mine, ow could the whole thing be? I disclaim, ydda yadda, okay I'll shut up now.

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**Maybe**

_Poems_

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In the morning, on his second year of living in Otogakure (two years, seven months, two weeks and five days), Uchiha Sasuke woke up to the sound of his door closing. He snapped awake quickly – that sound should not have happened, and it either meant that someone had entered his room, or left it having not woken him up. As he lay very still, eyes open but shielded from view, it became clear that it was the second option. After ascertaining that there were no traps that would be set off by his getting up, the Uchiha survivor (one of two, why do they always forget, I'm not the last. I'm just the last they wanted to admit to) quickly opened the door and searched for the culprit. Even with his Sharingan, the hallway was empty.

It wasn't written off, but Orochimaru would skin him for being late to training (not strong enough yet, not strong enough to leave, not strong enough to stay, NOT STRONG ENOUGH) so Sasuke didn't search his room until later that day. It took fifteen minutes of searching to find, not because it was hidden but because it wasn't. On a table, just sitting there, were two things. A poem, and a shard of glass.

Roses aren't always red

And violets are violet, not blue

We can't wait forever

But we'll wait for you

The glass looked like it had come from a small mirror.

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Three days later, in the morning (two years, seven months, three weeks and one day) when he got back to his room after a short run, there was another poem, and another shard.

Blood that won't wash clean

From hands and minds and red eyes

Our blood together

On the edge of the shard was a line of not-yet-dry blood.

* * *

Two years, seven months, three weeks and six days.

Do you remember the sun on our faces

The wind in our hair

The day you turned back to wait for me?

Are you waiting still?

If you had asked, might I have followed?

Might I follow still?

The shard of glass, wet blood, and a scrap of orange fabric.

* * *

The poems and glass, and now the orange scrap, were carefully stored where no one could get to them. He should report it, report that someone could get into his room and back out without being caught, not once but three times. He didn't.

Two years, eight months. This time, there were also two locks of hair, one bright gold, one pink.

We don't belong to ourselves anymore.

Since a day with two bells

A day on a bridge

A day in a forest

We belong to each other.

I cannot forgive the promise I forced

The bonds I couldn't keep from being broken

The family that we belong to being shattered.

Can you forgive betrayal?

We can.

If we cannot forgive ourselves

Then we can only forgive each other.

That night he left a reply. It read, "You have nothing to be forgiven for." In the morning, it was gone.

* * *

Four days later, when Sasuke walked into his room with Orochimaru's bloody head in a sack, they were waiting for him.

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	5. Kunoichi

Sooooo... I'm back? And I got a rabid attack of the plot bunnies, and sat down and wrote this all in one sitting, when I should have been doing homework that's due tomorrow and now it's 2 AM. Over 2,000 words, but godsdamnit, I got it all down. Unbetaed, but I have a new computer that actually has spellcheck, so that's better. This one is a what if Naruto was a kunoichi. I firmly subscribe to the theory that "kunoichi" is much more than "female ninja" and this reflects that. It isn't a "Naruto has been pretending to be a boy" or "was turned into a girl," it's what if she was always female, and how might that change the details if not necessarily the broad outlines of the Narutoverse. Out of necessity, because this is a rather focused oneshot, Akatsuki gets only a side mention, and canon is in some places only waved at as we pass by. There are spoilers, up until around the Team Hebi bits, but it's all pretty vague and AU in fun ways. Enjoy, and as always, if this were mine would I be posting it on the internet at two in the morning? I think not.

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**Maybe**

_Kunoichi_

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If Uzumaki Naruto had been born a girl, the world would have been different.

Girls, little ones, are easier to break than little boys. Not because they are weaker, but because people very seldom tell them they need to be strong.

Girls, slightly older ones, are easier to put back together, not because they are stronger, but because they are not taught to be so rigid they shatter.

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This doesn't mean that they ever get back to fine. Once something has been broken, a person or an object, it will always have been broken. They can be whole again, with time and stubbornness and a lot of luck, since no one who had the skill had the time, and no one who had the time had the desire to put a broken child back together. Later, perhaps someone will realize that that's part of what's wrong with Konoha. They can be whole again, but they'll never be like they were, and it's oh-so-easy to lose some of the pieces. Witness Anko, who doesn't _want_ to be whole and sensible and _fragile_ and _vulnerable_ again, ever. Witness Hinata, who will be strong, someday, but who will never wear the mask of ice the Hyuuga are supposed to have. Witness Tsunade, who waits terrified at the beginning of every casualty report and when she has time, gives herself a moment of utter, crushing, guilty _relief_ that this time, this time there is no one she loves on it. Except for when they are. Witness Naruto, who always keeps her promises, but doesn't have to be a damn fool about it.

Witness Naruto, who is kunoichi in a way that Sakura will never be, that Kakashi knows but does not comprehend, that Sai might have been if he could love the people that he kills with a smile, that Sasuke almost is, almost understands, and missed the meaning of by a gap so wide the entirety of the Elemental Countries could disappear into it like a raindrop into the ocean.

* * *

When Haku died, Naruto thought for the longest time that it was alright. Not _right_, no, but he'd done his duty as a kunoichi, given everything he was for his master, his teacher, his Zabuza who was his reason for existing. It isn't right, no one should ever only have meaning as a tool, no one should ever have to kill their hearts to carry out their duty, but that is what being a kunoichi is sometimes. They are the ones who know how to bend and twist and warp without breaking, and without giving up a centimeter, a hair, a whisper of space. Ninjas are weapons to kill, and people. Shinobi are the ones who fight in the battles that look more like samurai warfare, group against group, or pair, or just one person. They are the ones who kill men and women and children in the night, or the day, wherever and whenever the target – person – and it's always both, even though sometimes people forget, or can't bear to remember – needs to be eliminated. They see underneath and to the side of morality, into necessity, into convenience, and because they are tools they do their duty and because they are people they sometimes break, sometimes fail. Witness Sakumo. Kunoichi are the ones who live for years as the wife or concubine, mistress or housekeeper or nanny, gardener, cook, even bodyguard, who grow to love and admire and respect the target, the person, the people and land and customs and ways so far away, until it becomes their home, and when the time comes, when the signal comes, still slip poison into the cup, a knife into the ribs, a pillow over the face, and sleep without dreams. Naruto thought it was alright.

Then, she remembered Haku was not a kunoichi.

* * *

When she and Sasuke meet up in battle, a complicated multi-participant one with nin from Sound and Sand and Akatsuki and Konoha, and Sasuke and the ones who followed him, and probably some others somewhere in there as well, she is ripping at enemies with knives and claws and teeth, eyes red and slitted, aura red and terrifying and _hers_ in a way no one who cannot put her aura and Kyuubi's side by side and compare them will ever quite figure out, or believe. He strikes lightning and fire and steel, eyes spinning red-and-black-and-red, until it is nearly over and some have fled and more are dead and the wounded are being tended to, dragged out of the way of the few little pockets of two or three of four people still struggling. They are perhaps four meters apart, his sword still out and bloody, her arms wet to the elbows with splashes farther and mouth soaked in a way that terrifies most and unsettles even the ones closest to her. They watch, the others, knowing the script, the questions, the answers, but always careful, just in case. This time, though, it changes.

"Are you planning on _ever_ coming back?"

Not are you coming back yet, you stupid bastard, jerk, stop being such an idiot, not the fire and determination she's supposed to have, no, just a question, the _wrong_ question, in a tone that shocks everyone because it isn't brash and rude and loud, isn't _Naruto_, just calm and slightly curious. Maybe it's the surprise that makes him answer as he does, honestly in a way he hadn't yet admitted even to himself.

"No." He hadn't known he thought that. He _had_ planned on coming back hadn't he? To restore his clan, the second (almost forgotten) part of his plan, and where else would he do that? He hasn't always though he would be _able_ to return, would survive to, but wasn't that the plan? No, he said, and meant it even though he didn't know it. This isn't how the conversation is supposed to go, and they are all almost, almost too confused or shocked or horrified to realize what happens next. Even Kakashi, with his Sharingan eye (Obito's eye, he calls it always), will doubt his memory sometimes later.

"Okay." Simple acceptance, a little nod, and suddenly she's _moving_, eyes blue and human and so cold the people who can't see them shiver and those who can stop breathing, and there's a knife in his belly, deep and fatal, but slow. No one can even scream. He looks at her, into her eyes, with an expression that isn't even shock but incomprehension, and then she's picking him up quickly, here one moment and then dumping him in front of their teammate who is one of maybe three people in the world who can do what she asks, demands now.

"Fix him." Still simple and so, so cold, and every one is still frozen and then the medic takes over the brain from the stunned, disbelieving little girl with a crush that will never quite go away and the teammate and friend that got a promise that _will be kept_ and green chakra spills into the wound and the world goes away. They bring him home. Sometimes, the others will be able to admit, if only to themselves or when stinking drunk, that maybe it'd have been better if they hadn't. Then, at least they could have kept believing in the little ball of sunshine and orange and ramen, and never seen the kunoichi underneath. It's too late now, and even though it's like a snake striking, here-then-gone, they can't forget, and now they are looking, so they see bits of it again.

* * *

The next time anyone really sees that Uzumaki Naruto is a kunoichi, even though no one is quite ready to admit it yet, is at the trial. The whole village knows what to expect, loud support and declarations. They don't come. Naruto gives her statement coolly, calmly, professionally, in detail and sparing nothing (except for when she lies, or omits, and her friends know a little of it and Sasuke knows more but no one will ever know exactly what she really left out, or lied about) for herself or him, then makes a logical, sensible judgment on acceptable consequences and a suggestion of a conclusion that is so very textbook and correct that they end up using it. The Hokage cannot even articulate the question, only managing to get out "Why-?" in a slightly choked tone. She stands, quietly, for a moment, head tilted slightly, then seems to find the words.

"Because I keep my promises. But I don't have to be a damn fool about it." Everyone in the audience who tried to dissuade her, especially those who called her just that, flinch as she turns and begins to walk away. He notices, of course – he is shinobi, and a good one in enough of the ways that count – and immediately figures it out.

"Am I the _only_ one that actually even begins to understand Uzumaki Naruto?" He fairly yelps, equal parts exasperated and disgusted, but there's a reason the two of them are best friends even when they are enemies, and he will always understand her better than anyone else, even though sometimes he misses the mark so far that even Lee, who is admittedly Not Good with female feelings, winces. _Of course_ Naruto kept going until she succeeded, _of course_ she kept her promise, even in such a vicious, calculated way. She's Uzumaki Naruto.

Then a shoe flies out at him from the part of the crowd she's walking through, and he catches it and (relatively) cheerfully yells "Bitch!" and is answered back, gleefully, "Fucker!" and somehow, Naruto-the-goofball is back and all the hurt and cold and mistrust the people who care about her or him or both were expecting isn't there, and Team Seven isn't broken like the Sannin or dead like Team Yondaime and maybe there weren't the impassioned pleas for leniency everyone was expecting, but it's _going to be alright_. It won't be now, but later, when Sasuke is once again free to roam the streets, when he steps out the door he's met by a grinning Naruto and a wary, but smiling Sakura and Sai is there with his fake smile but in a way that _belongs_, and most of the rest of the Rookie Nine (and Gai's team) have found excused to be there or nearby, or have just shown up with no explanation needed, and Naruto hangs an arm around Sasuke's neck and he ducks his head to mask what might be a scowl or might be a smirk or maybe, maybe a smile, and everyone can forget, for a while, that Uzumaki Naruto is kunoichi (no she isn't).

* * *

It's the next time that puts paid to denial. Sasuke isn't exactly back in good standing, but normal is starting to be an option again, and no one wants to test what would happen if he went near any truly sensitive areas but just walking around or training has become a regular part of life again. A group is walking, Sasuke and Naruto and Sakura, Kiba and Lee and Ino roughhousing a bit, Shikamaru getting drawn in, Shino and Hinata more sedate. Chouji, Neji, and Tenten are all on missions, but the subtle watchers in the trees include Kurenai and Kakashi. Gai and Asuma are elsewhere as well, because Asuma is never shy about just walking along with them and Gai either doesn't or can't hide when not on a mission. And sometimes even when he is. It's an older ninja, slightly incredulous, slightly curious, who accosts them. He's not quite hostile, but certainly watchful. He seems not worried, perhaps, but concerned – for Naruto, which is always going to make her friends a little upset when it's obvious (to them) that she is just not used to people caring. He asks if she's sure it's such a good idea, being so close with Sasuke, if she can really handle it. Of course she can, she says. He's her teammate; she'd damn well better be able to handle him! The older shinobi shakes his head.

"That's not what I meant, kid. I mean, if you have to, if he runs off again," it's not widely spoken of, but Sasuke's past is certainly known, "will you be able to be the one who puts him down?"

"Of course." It's matter of fact, not sarcastic or hurtful, but simply and clearly fact. Of course. She smiles at the older man, turns, and with hands in pockets she starts bouncing back over to her friends.

"How?" the man asks. She stops, turns back slightly, still smiling, and says only, "I'm kunoichi."

It's all that really needs to be said, after all but the expressions on the faces of every single person who has any idea what that really means are melancholy. Of course she can kill her best friend, of course she will, if she needs to. Uzumaki Naruto is kunoichi.

The cheerful voice interrupts, "Ramen?" Snorting slightly, Sasuke responds, smirking, "Only if you're paying." As they set off, no one follows for a moment, until Naruto turns back.

"You coming?" And the group begins moving again, only now with the firm, inescapable knowledge they now must accept, even if they never again witness it.

* * *

Naruto is kunoichi, exactly as she should be.


End file.
